Addressing Hawai‘i’s affordable housing crisis

American Savings Bank has donated $20K to support the Hawai‘i Community Reinvestment Corporation Distinguished Professorship in Affordable Housing. This endowed professorship was established earlier this year with a gift from the Hawaii Community Reinvestment Corporation (HCRC) to help address the growing crisis of affordable housing in Hawaiʻi. The professorship is housed in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization (UHERO) in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

“Hawai‘i’s significant shortage of affordable housing affects many in our community,” said Rich Wacker, president and CEO of American Savings Bank. “We are proud to support UH’s efforts to garner research and recommendations to move the dial on this critical issue.”

The goal of the HCRC Distinguished Professorship in Affordable Housing is to deepen understanding of the affordable housing issue and develop innovative, effective policy and programmatic alternatives.

The projected benefits include:

• Training a new generation of housing practitioners dedicated to developing affordable housing and affordable housing policy;
• Establishing a robust research agenda focused on identifying and evaluating ways to increase housing affordability, particularly those suitable for the state; and
• Disseminating research findings to policymakers, stakeholders and the general public to increase awareness and understanding of the nature of the problem and potential solutions.

The College is raising additional funds to bring the endowment to $1 million to support research, teaching and policy engagement activities. To make a gift please contact Executive Director of Development, UH Mānoa (Social Sciences) Matt Henry at https://www.facebook.com/UniversityHawaiiFoundation/posts/5101385739921225 or [email protected]. You can also make a gift now.